


Who's a heretic child?

by myrskytuuli



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anti Ending, Itachi was no saint, Kishimoto your ending is full of holes and I am going to poke into some of them, Politics, Revolution, anti konoha, because author is incapable of writing anything without myth references, bitter author expresses her problems with naruto ending, naruto having to deal with economics, poor sasuke, references real world mythology, was anyone else really creeped by the automatic chakra weapons in the Bolt movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 07:21:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7748440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrskytuuli/pseuds/myrskytuuli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Can you make it stick, now?<br/>And I'm on trial<br/>Waiting 'til the beat comes out<br/>The Uchihas are mad, the boyking is trying to keep the leaves from rotting to the ground, and the will of fire will endure. There are things in the darkness whispering of revolution and no one got their happy ending.<br/>Maybe this is the price we pay for our sins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who's a heretic child?

_There is a story repeated around the elemental nations, old story, older than the borders and the villages. It is a story which once was a myth, which once was believed to be the truth, like all religions once were._

_It is a story of a god and a goddess who created the world. Everything was good until the goddess broke the order of the world, by speaking against her husband. The other gods punished her severely for it, for they knew that once you let the forces of chaos and change in, the world will end._

_The goddess endured and endured until it came time to give birth to fire, and she no longer could endure. The fire burned her as she lay in the birthing hut and she was the first of the gods to die._

_The other gods told her husband to leave her in the underworld and forget, but he could not. Instead he descended into the darkness of death to search for his wife. After the long journey he finally found her, but in the darkness she had become foul to look at, and her heart cruel. The god looked upon her and said: You are not my wife that I dearly loved. You are ugly and speak harshly and think of cruel things._

_And the goddess answered: And still this is what you all made me to be._

_And the god and the goddess fought until the god managed to seal her into the underworld forever, where she stayed birthing all the evil and maladies that plague the world today._

 

* * *

 

In the hokage’s office, a lonely figure sits hunched over the damning papers. It is midnight and he promised that he would be home at a reasonable hour, to help his son with his homework. He isn’t home and he isn’t working either, he just stares at the papers on his desk, the papers that tell him the horrible truth of the world, one he so desperately tries to hide from his subjects.

There is no happy ending for Konoha. Konoha, like all the ninja villages, is an autonomic city-state inside a nation, which has only one export: violence. They have a small industry of weapon smiths, which sell even outside the village, and healing facilities that are preferred by the rich civilians. The host nation is always the biggest customer of a ninja village and unless the nation is at war the village does not make any money. The host nations are rarely in total war, but the villages of the said nations many times are. As the village is still seen as part of the host nation, the wars between the villages will be paid by the nation. That is how a ninja village makes profit.

The hokage stares at the statistics in front of him and tries to see a third path between war and starvation. Hoping that this would be the night that he would find the answer.

The Chuunin exams are coming and he knows that they have to be as extravagant as ever. He is sitting over a community of super human, trained weapons, and if those weapons realize that they would be better off outside the village…well that would be unforgivable.

So the hokage does what he has done for a while now and starts planning how much he will have to borrow from the Hyuugas again. He knows that it is unfortunate that by indebting the village so much to one family means that the Hokage cannot touch the Hyuugas and their unfortunate habit of enslaving their own family members with the curse-seal, but sometimes a leader has to prioritise.

And then there are the rebels… the faceless shadows crawling in the underbelly of the village, leaving behind scrawled messages into the sides of buildings, and deals made in secret. The ones that grow in number every day.

The Hokage once had to beat the revolution from his best friend and he is now afraid that he will have to kill it from his village.

 

* * *

 

**The mother of madness.**

Yes I do know what they call me in the streets, I am neither blind nor deaf. What I would like to say is that…well I guess I just should have known. I did my best, I really did but sometimes I think that it must be something in their blood… We thought that the cycle of hatred would have been broken, but I guess we were all wrong.

Yes I do know about the old saying too. That every time an uchiha is born, the gods flip a coin to either madness or greatness.

I do support the Hokage, of course I do. We all do! I would say that I have more reason to believe in him than anyone. To hope. Our Hokage brought my husband back once too, so now I pray to the gods that he could bring back my…my…

 

* * *

 

The Hokage hates the laboratories. They are white, impersonal and full of echoes of futures that he does not want to imagine.

The scientist is demonstrating the weapon to him. It is impressive. A device that stores chakra and allows for anyone to wield even the most prestigious techniques. The Hokage hates them, hates how they undermine everything he has ever believed in. Still, he knows that what has once been made cannot be unmade and if he doesn’t take the change, some other village will and then the power balance of the world will be disturbed. Right now Konoha holds a hegemony by reputation over the other villages. They know that Konoha has two of the most powerful shinobi to walk this earth, in centuries, defending it.

But if some other hostile nation decides to arm their millions of civilians with these devices, there isn’t a power in heaven or earth that could stop them.

“There is another matter that needs to be discussed with utmost secrecy, Hokage-sama.” The scientist continues.

They continue their conversation in much more secure environment, where the scientist unfolds his folder. These people do not use scrolls, they deem themselves above tradition and past.

“There see. The force of the weapon relies on the force of the chakra downloaded in the device, which makes them usually no more powerful than an attack from your average ninja. But if we could harness power from someone with extraordinary amount of chakra…” There he looks at the hokage, the fabled one who will never run out of chakra.

“And why would I do that.”

“For the future. Konoha is protected by your reputation, hokage-sama. You are leaving an impossible task for your successor. Unless of course the next hokage could have another leverage to control politics with. A weapon loaded with unimaginable amounts of chakra. An arsenal of weapons, all holding your extraordinary powers in them…”

The hokage imagines, he imagines a weapon that once shot could level entire cities, imagines a flash and a bang, and a mushroom cloud. Imagines that the weapon could be fired by anyone with or without chakra, no rituals, no training, and no repercussions for the one holding the trigger.

* * *

 

**The kingmaker**

I am aware of the rumours surrounding my daughter’s marriage. That our family would have pressured the hokage into marrying a Hyuuga, in return of our family’s support for his reign and a generous loan for konoha’s treasury. Honestly, it causes great indignation in me to hear such rumours.

Yes, yes of course it is true that our family holds many important offices in the village, and supports our government monetarily as much as it can, but you have to put all this into its proper context. We are an old family, a large family. We have always been deeply involved in the governing of this village. The old families are the roots that hold this village standing, they have always been, and due to many unfortunate circumstances this heavy burden has collected to the Hyuugas more than to the others. The Uchihas succumbed to the madness that is so typical of them, and destroyed themselves. Many old families were weakened in the third shinobi war. The Hyuugas have endured, as we will continue to endure. Endure and support our great Hokage.

Fears that during the next generation the Hyuugas will be the sole rulers of the village? Absolutely unfounded. Yes I admit that we are proud to have Hyuuga children in the Hokage’s family, but there is no certainty that one of those Hyuuga children would be chosen as the next Hokage. It is entirely possible that our Hokage will choose some other successor. Actually The Hyuuga family would be happy to support and advice the hokage in his choice for the next hokage when the time comes.  

Yes, I am very proud of both of my daughters. They have both served the family well. Hanabi is turning into a strong successor for myself, and Hinata has also found her own place by the hokage’s side.

 

* * *

 

There is an inn far away from any ninja villages, far away from everything. The owner is a commoner who knows little of the politics of the ninja, or politics in general.

He has a wife and a daughter, and he has a shrine for the rabbit goddess. A religion widely practiced in the backwards agrarian peripheries like these, but mostly forgotten in the more cosmopolitan areas.

Every night the man prays for the goddess Kaguya to bring her heaven on earth, and to punish the ninjas. Once the inn owner had a brother who was assassinated by one of the shinobi, who was not able to pay his taxes for the local feudal lord. It had been because of a drought, but what would a shinobi care. They were paid by those with the money to wipe out those without.

This man does not know what happened in the fourth shinobi war, or what it was fought for, expect that during it the tax collectors had come, and taken almost everything that hadn’t been nailed down to cover the cost of feeding an army of over 80 000 ninja soldiers.

Generally this man hates the ninja, but there are exceptions. Like the small group currently hiding in his cellar.

The man digs his fingers into the ground, which looks disturbed, near the altar. There is a scroll buried there, a decrypted one. He will not be able to read it but his guests will.

His guests go by many names. The servants of Izanami. The forgotten ones. The forsaken ones. The freedom fighters. The rebels.

He sends one more prayer to Kaguya, Kaguya who is promised to one day to deliver this world from the destructive chakra, and the evil that it allows people to do to each other.

Descending down the steps to his cellar, the man hands the message to one of his guests, the one they call a demon for her black hair and red eyes.

 

* * *

 

**The queen of peace**

I believe in the future that my husband is creating. I have believed in my husband ever since I first laid my eyes on him. He has been my inspiration through my entire life. I also believe that he will be the same for this village.

Well, of course there are hardships to face in our family. It is the lot of hokage’s family, but I understand that my husband has to put the good of the village first. And we are a happy family, we are! Our family is full of love. I do my best to not create any more stress for my husband, and take care of our children as well as possible.

I don’t really like to talk about that. What happened was awful, and of course it does affect us too… but I try not think of those things too much. I think the whole village would be better off if we trusted our hokage more and worried a little less. He will take care of us, and it saddens me that the rebels cannot see that only by sticking together and trusting our Hokage can we shinobi prosper. There is no place for chaos in the hidden village. But my father has always said that there is something in the Uchiha blood that makes them a bit…

No, I will not comment on the caged bird curse seal. It is not relevant to the discussion.

Yes, I am very proud that my daughter is now going to take part in the chuunin exams. I am sure that she will make us all very proud. She is very skilled with weapons. I only hope that not too many children will die in this year’s exams.

 

* * *

 

If you want to work, you better be a genin or a jounin, they say at the taverns. In those hole in the wall taverns where you can speak more freely, without fearing that you will be labelled as a rebel for just complaining a little.

The genins are happy catching their cats and weeding their gardens, while the jounins are happy wiping out the nuke-nins like there was nothing more important. That is because right now there isn’t. The hokage has a strict policy on what kind of missions he accepts for his ninjas, and assassins rarely make money if they start having a moral code. Especially now that the government has cut its funding now that there is no threat of another ninja village attacking. Now the hokage pays the jounins to catch missing nins, just to keep at least the most skilled part of the population paid and working.

They are starting to have more and more missing nins to catch, as unemployed and desperate ninjas start to slip from the village one by one when they realise that they have neither money nor prospects for future work. Konoha is eating their own and if you have half of a brain, you know it.

But still, the general consensus is that rebelling is still a touch too extreme. Ninja villages have always lived by the rule that strong live and the weak will be killed on mission, so technically the body count is staying about the same. But it is a shame to have to kill your neighbours, instead of strangers from another village.

But a true shinobi does not complain over small economic depression, the village endures like it has always done and trusts that their hokage will eventually fix this.

 

* * *

 

**The boyking**

Honestly? Honestly I thought it would be different. I dreamed of this title since I was a small child, but some days… There have been some unexpected sacrifices on the way is all I am trying to say. Sometimes I do wonder…

 

* * *

 

The Hokage’s son is on television again. He is a striking young boy, handsome and charming. He has a story that the media loves to hear over and over. He is the son who rebelled and then came to his senses and returned to his place by the Hokage’s side. It is story that many parents like to hear, in hopes that their children would do the same.

“Yes, when I was younger, I did not understand or value the great work that my father does for this village. I did not understand the will of fire, the fire that burns within us all and unites us as a community. The will to endure, to preserve our proud traditions and ways. Our history is what makes us strong and sometimes we must put the needs of our community over our personal, selfish needs. It took me too long to understand this, but now I hope that I can teach it forwards to others who have doubts like I once did.”

In the corner of a noodle bar, there is a girl watching the public television screen with sadness mixed with loathing. She is well disguised, but the years in hiding have made her twitchy. Some of her twitchiness is also because she had once again visited the memorial of Konoha’s secret hero. One now venerated almost like a saint. The one who obediently killed his family when his superiors so commanded. The utmost loyalty deserving the utmost admiration. She hates the memorial, hates that out of all of her kin, he is the only one forgiven. Because he obeyed. Because he did not let little things like murdering elderly, or children, or pregnant women, his own blood, stand in the way of his duty to the village.

She can almost hear the old bones rattle in their mass grave every time she stands in front of the memorial. Unlike her father, she isn’t looking for vengeance. She is distant enough to see clearly, and she is seeking to prevent the next massacre. She knows what the people say of her kin. That they are prone to madness. That they brought it upon themselves.

She knows why people say these things of the uchiha. Because by believing that the Uchiha are somehow different they can believe that the same thing can’t happen to their family. That their family is safe because they are not mad like the Uchihas were. They can’t handle the idea that what happened to the Uchiha could happen to some other family as well. Their family.

 

* * *

 

**The unforgiven**

My hokage commands, I obey. That is all. I know I will never be forgiven and I do not seek forgiveness for the crimes of my past. I only seek to realise the dream that the hokage has, to help him in whatever he needs.

Yes I know, I have heard. I do believe it. It is a flaw in the bloodline, which is why I trust the hokage to keep me from falling down the path of madness again. I only wish that I could one day serve the village with same strength that my brother did. He was a hero and I know that I will never live up to him.

 

* * *

 

 When the Hokage finally gives his command to his most trusted, his most trusted wonders why it took so long. The hokage is a gentle heart, but even he must agree that there is no other way anymore. The rebellion is either taken down or the rebellion will take down the village.

“I can send someone else…You don’t have to do this.” The hokage says, eyes full of pity. He knows what he is asking and is trying to give his oldest friend a way out. Hoping to save both his friends heart as well as his own conscience.

“You know you can’t. Only a sharingan can beat a sharingan and she is too good. She has too much me in her.”

“I’m sorry.” The hokage says, truly meaning it from the bottom of his heart. He knows that he has failed. He has failed on his promises to his best friend. He has failed on many promises.

 

* * *

 

In Konoha they believe in the will of fire. It is the symbol of their country and it is central to their philosophy of life. To keep the will of fire burning, the collective fire, the soul of the village.

And if the will of fire is not otherwise kept burning, it will be fed with the corpses of those that did not endure.

 

* * *

 

There is a manifesto nailed to the utility pole, the same one that keeps circling from hand to hand, and from village to village. The one that speaks of assimilation to the civilian populace, and demilitarization, and freedom of migration amongst the shinobi population, and democracy, and breaking the power monopoly of the old clans, and child protection laws equal to those of the civilian populace.

It is a long manifesto. Sasuke has read it and has to agree that it is better thought out than anything that he could have come up with in his dark period.

His daughter is waiting by the pole. A young woman now, no longer a girl. “Father.” She greets him. Cool, uncaring. She looks just like him.

He doesn’t offer her a change to repent, to return back. He is no Naruto and the moment passed years ago. Instead he unsheathes his sword and attacks. His daughter retaliates easily.

They fight with a grace only two uchihas can. This is what they have been bred to do for generations and generations. Nobody does kinslaying as beautifully as Uchihas.

It is during the fight that Uchiha Sasuke finally reaches his absolution, his peace, his forgiveness. For in fighting his daughter, he realises, like a rain curtain would have been pulled from his mind, that his brother was wrong. That there is no power in heaven or earth that could make him kill his own daughter, his own flesh and blood, the woman who was once a small child in his arms, small and fragile. The world can burn, he will not do it. All the way to this moment he had imagined that what his brother did was noble, but now he realises that it was not. Killing all of his family was unforgivable and that obeying the village was no strength, but weakness of a teenager that’s mind had been broken long time ago.

Leaving Sasuke alive was no kindness either. Forcing Sasuke witness the violence was nothing more than Itachi’s weakness because he didn’t want to be the only one to remember. Manipulating Sasuke to grow into hateful killing machine was selfishness on Itachi’s side, obsessive love that could not let Sasuke go and live his life in peace from his brother’s memory. Itachi hadn’t been a hero, but a weapon with barely a mind of its own and a slightly psychotic tendency to cling to the idea of loving his little brother.

Because right now facing his daughter Sasuke realised that words of love didn't mean shit against actions. 

Sasuke truly loved his Hokage, but even that did not weight as much as his love for his daughter. He would not harm his daughter. He would not be selfish and force his daughter to become a kinslayer either. Sasuke would not taint her in that way.

He was content. He was free from the chains of the past. He had been a child, hurt beyond endurance, never received help from anyone, and his pain had been entirely justified. He had done wrong, but he hadn’t been evil. He had been the violent end of the violent delights.

His daughter was different, she had chosen the dark path, but she wasn't tainted by it in the same way. 

There would be no way for the both of them to walk out of this fight free and alive, and Sasuke still loved his hokage too much to raise his hand against him.

He let his daughter go. Stood aside and told her some truths (about love) and some lies (about what he was going to do next)

After his daughter had slipped into the night, he slit his own throat. A cowards way out, but now they would fear her daughter more than ever. They would not dare to stand in her way, believing that she had killed the second most powerful shinobi to walk in this continent.

But Naruto would know. Naruto would know and he would have his own choice to make after seeing the forehead protector, where the leaf had been neatly slashed, just like his throat. 

 

* * *

 

**The heretic child**

Why? Because I could not just stand by, breathing in the smell of blood and look by as we sacrifice children in order to cling into some idealistic past. I believe that we can be better. That we have to be better. The world is not static, we have to adapt, and we have to learn to draw the line in the sand. I never understood the whole will of fire nonsense, or why we so desperately clung to the shinobi ways. What honourable is there in learning hundred ways to kill a man?

I know, they call me hypocrite, maybe I am. I have used those skills and I have definitely killed my fair share.

But still. I think doing what you believe to be right is the most any of us can do. You just have to ask yourself, am I doing more good than harm and go from there. I would like to believe that the scales have stayed at least level.

I think that’s the real tragedy here, because everyone was doing what they believed was right. The hokage surely believed that he was the one doing good, and my father believed that too, and I’m sure even Madara believed that he was doing good when he tried to slaughter the whole world.

I don’t know, I wish you could have more inspiring answer than this, but I am just too tired to be inspiring anymore.

 

* * *

 

 

_In the ancient religions of the elemental nations there is no continuation for the story of the goddess abandoned in the underworld. But far in the north, where the shinobi do not travel and where the pale pirates sail on boats with wooden dragons carved into their ships, they have their own religion, different one, with different morals and prayers._

_Those stories tell the story of a dark goddess who would gather the dishonoured, the forgotten, and the damned into her army. There would be a battle and it would end the world, so that a new one might be born._

_That is because the northern folk believe that time is a cycle, as opposed to how the people of elemental nations believe that time is static._

_Who knows who is right, they are all just stories in the end._

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, okay. You might have noticed but I wasn't impressed with Kishimoto's vision for the Naruto series and its ending. This fic has been rolling in my mind for a while, but It got actual shape while we were marathoning game of thrones and I realised that Uchihas are the Targaryens of Naruto-verse.
> 
> Danzo: In my dreams I kill them all again  
> Sarutobi: It's done. The Uchihas are gone  
> Danzo: Not all of them. *Camera turns to Sasuke* With fire and blood I will avenge my family!
> 
> If someone can name both goddesses I reference in the beginning and the end of the fic: Great! Tell me in reviews. If someone can find the quote about Targaryens in the fic: Great! Tell me in reviews. If someone can explain me how the economics of the naruto world are supposed to work in Kishimoto's vision: absolutely tell me! I want to know. If somebody wants to talk with me about anything, come to my tumblr: http://equna.tumblr.com/ 
> 
> Now I really want to write game of thrones/Naruto fusion fic.


End file.
